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The
Friends of the Trestle Bridge is a volunteer non-profit group committed
to caring for the Monbulk Creek and lower Clematis Creek Valley
environment and habitat and the area surrounding and associated with the
historic 1899 vintage Puffing Billy Railway Trestle Bridge
This
location was recently incorporated into the Sherbrooke Forest National
Park
The bridge, situated at Selby in The Dandenong Ranges, some
26.5 miles by rail east Of Melbourne, carries the Puffing Billy Heritage
Narrow-Gauge (2'6") Railway over the Monbulk Creek and is part of a
working railway that now carries considerably more traffic than in it's
prime working era of the first 30 years of the 20th century
A
Unique Location
The
importance of this area of the Monbulk Creek Valley lies in it's
botanical features and historical associations
The area
downstream, west of the bridge contains a Wet Forest plant community*
along the creek and slope
The area immediately upstream is
significant as the creek flows through a creek flat populated by a
locally rare pure stand of the lovely tall white Manna Gums (Eucalyptus
viminalis) changing abruptly into an almost pure stand of Messmate
Stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) on the steep north slope as one
proceeds east up Nation Road
The bridge crosses a creek gully
that hosts the meeting of the Clematis and Monbulk Creeks, between them,
draining the entire Sherbrooke Forest.
It straddles the
transition zone between the sheltered Wet forest (Eucalyptus Regnans
dominant) at the Belgrave (up) end and the Mountain Grey Gum (Eucalyptus
cypellocarpa)/Messmate "Damp Forest" plant association that begins on
the drier opposing slope at the Gembrook (down) end
This is the
predominant plant community along most of the rest of the
Belgrave-Emerald Ridge
The original settlement of this area still
lives on in the form of overgrown original house gardens in the forest
They
have contributed to the weed problems and also provided many large
mature, non-invasive exotic trees, including dozens of conifers of many
types, scattered throughout the ferns, blackwoods and mountain ash
forest giants and is a special part of the character of the gully
A
mixed goods and passenger train bound for Gembrook, from a pre-1920's
postcard.
A man is standing on the refuge platform near the centre of
the bridge. Beyond, the Emerald road can be seen with a post and rail
fence along the property above it. A strip below the bridge is kept bare
to prevent it from igniting during a bushfire or from train sparks or ash.
The
Grey Gums and Messmate Stringybarks in the background were possibly
damaged during the extensive conflagration in 1896 that laid waste the
forest and destroyed many Selby houses. Both these tree species are more
tolerant to large fires and develop new epicormal growth from under the
bark to recover.
The Mountain Ash on the wetter slope we're standing on
rely on seedlings to regenerate.
This, for the tree, had proved a fine
strategy prior to the human disruption to one's normal Large Wildfire
Cycle, normally measured in hundreds of years. Big fires can kill the
biggest and oldest of these Eucalyptus regnans. Another fire within a few
years kills the young regrowth and the species will not regenerate.
This
happened to large tracts of the Sherbrooke Forest after 2 wildfires in the
mid 20's. These bare areas were planted with Pinus radiata until the 80's,
since reseeded with Mountain ash, though all the forest species now grow
there. A species with a 400 year lifespan is only a toddler at 30 years
and a teenager at 100
 Rehabilitation
results, 20m from the Gembrook Road culvert. The left bank of the creek is
a bamboo thicket, while the right side has been restored by the simple
expedient of removing the weed species. There is a pile of cestrum and
assorted other beasties in the background. There is an emergent sycamore
maple and some cestrum up closer while the black sticks are sycamore.
Virtually everything else is natural regrowth. If we had more hands we
could do a lot more of this kind of thing. 
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